


Lunch at the Lotus: An Interlude

by chellerrific



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-10
Updated: 2011-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lunch of champions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lunch at the Lotus: An Interlude

**Author's Note:**

> Set during chapter 16 of _The Lightning Thief_.

Percy’s stomach growled. With great reluctance, he pulled himself away from the fighting game he was playing to find something to eat.

Two cookies and a Mountain Dew—lunch of champions—in hand, he sat on a long cushioned bench that curved around a table. The table was mostly empty, save for a boy and a girl sitting just opposite him.

They looked related, same olive skin and black hair. The girl was about Percy’s age, the boy just younger. The girl was lying on her side napping, her jacket bundled up under her head like a pillow. The boy was playing a game that Percy didn’t recognize, but it involved cards and small figurines.

Percy thought their clothes were a little odd. They looked like they were dressed for church or maybe a funeral. The girl was wearing a white blouse and a black calf-length skirt, and she had little white gloves on her hands. The boy was in a suit—a suit!—with a black double-breasted jacket.

But almost as soon as Percy registered the thought, it left his mind completely. He watched the boy play his game. The boy was completely absorbed in it and didn’t seem to notice Percy at all.

Percy ate his cookies, his gaze drifting lazily over the cards. One of the figurines looked familiar to him…

Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed it.

“Hey!” the boy said, looking up at him like Percy had just physically attacked him.

“What’s this game?” Percy asked, staring at the figurine, trying to place it.

“Mythomagic,” the boy said. His annoyance seemed to fade the more he talked about the game. “I don’t have that many figurines yet. I just started playing. That’s Poseidon. He’s the strongest one I have right now but I hope I can replace him with Zeus soon. Zeus’ lightning bolts do six hundred damage!”

For some reason this annoyed Percy. It wasn’t the way the boy prattled about the game, though Percy didn’t understand most of what he said. It was something about Zeus and Poseidon…

“Hello, can I get you kids anything?” A waitress in a lotus-patterned shirt appeared at Percy’s shoulder. “Say, are either of you boys interested in shooting games? This one over here is my favorite, and nobody’s using it right now!”

It was like she’d stuck a pin in Percy’s thought balloon. He looked up at her. “That sounds nice,” he said. He stood, absently dropping the figurine on the table.

As he followed the waitress away, he heard the boy say, “Come back and play some more later!”


End file.
